Tomorrow's Dead: The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles (6 page)

“I didn’t know that,” said Michelle. 

“Not many do, so keep it under your hat.”

“You can count on me, boss.  Here’s her room.  Good luck.”  The young women hugged,
and Michelle couldn’t help but ask, “Is true you can’t shoot?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”  Poe turned away from her friend who looked crestfallen and
walked briskly away.  Feeling depleted, Poe knocked on Maple’s door.  An oversized
man wearing a polka dot sweater opened the door and swung at her with a Phillips screwdriver.

Her body responded automatically by deflecting the man’s punch with her left arm and
hitting him in the throat.  To keep the man down, Poe kicked his left leg under him
and shoved his face on the floor.  Within those seconds one of her wrist knives had
unfolded. 

“Stop!  Poe, for the love of God, he’s one of us.”  Maple kneeled in front of the
man and removed Poe’s grip on his head by prying away her fingers one by protesting
one.  The vampire killer heard sobbing from the man, and Maple cradled his head. 
“What the hell are you thinking?”

The girl glanced up at the Y-vein circulating dead liquid through her lined forehead. 
She was more than a bit annoyed.  “He attacked me.  You saw, right?”

“Yes, but he’s special,” said Maple with care, wiping the tears from the big toothy
man with the bottom of her shirt.

“Yeah, special in the head,” said Poe disbelievingly.  Just as the words left her
mouth, she noticed the man’s slack mouth and childlike gaze. 

“Julia Poe!  We will not start labeling people in this new society of ours.  You should
be ashamed!”  She helped the 40-year-old with a 10-year-old’s mind to his feet and
sent him on his way.  “Thank you for replacing the wall plates, Jonah.  You did a
good job.  Tomorrow we’ll work on changing light bulbs.”

“Okay, Maple.  But your friend’s no good.  I was just funning,” said the big man with
resentment, wiping his wet face.  “I don’t like you, you witch!”

“Well she’s new here, love.  Now go on.”  Poe’s anger waned.  She was trying to defend
herself, but it was wrong to call people names.  Her parents would’ve been up in arms
at what she had said.  The old ignorant, filth-mouth Julia Poe hadn’t been eradicated
after all.

Maple, wearing a purple shirt and brown corduroy pants, embraced the small vampire
killer who had shaken the old order with her sheer fortitude.  “Welcome, Poe.  Let’s
forget all that with Jonah.  You don’t know how glad we are that you’re back.”

Poe sat on the neatly made bed facing Maple, thinking about the intellectually disabled
man she’d just downed and shook him out of her head.  “I don’t really know how much
I can change things around here, Maple.  I nearly killed a friendly a minute ago. 
In many ways, I’m still broken by Trench, and I’ve lost my balance.”  She rarely spoke
about her three-month imprisonment with Quillon Trench, a master vampire that liked
to play games, torture, and humiliate.

“I know it was hell, Poe.  I’m so sorry about what happened to you.  But if you only
knew what your presence means in this city.”

“Do people really care?”

“You’ve been here less than 24 hours, and the crime rate has already crashed,” said
Maple.  She leaned to pat Penny, who was sitting on the carpet and looking as though
she was participating in the conversation.  “Everyone fears you.  ODs, newly formed
vamps, humans, and halfdead respect you.  You represent destruction and in many ways,
hope.  You’ve rescued most of the people in this city, and they have your complete
loyalty.  Vampires know you only kill when you need to.  Even locked up leeches who
raped and tortured blood slaves are waiting and hoping you’ll speak up for them.”

“That’s a tall order for someone who’s been out of the picture,” the girl proclaimed,
swatting the beads of sweat from her nose that had been bothering her since Jonah.

“You’re telling me,” said Maple with a sigh.

“What do they plan to do with the leeches?” asked Poe.  She despised the men and women
who had worked for vampires in exchange for their lives and a steady stream of narcotics. 
They cared for their human cattle while the undead slept, impregnated comatose women
who’d been raped multiple times, and harvested blood. 

“The Tunics want to execute them.  Sainvire is looking for a way to avoid vendetta
killing.  He reminds us that almost everyone was guilty of one thing or another and
that if we want the new society to survive, we must learn to tolerate the intolerable.”

“Idealistic as ever, that man,” grumbled Poe.  “But what about Perla?  How come she’s
the leader of the Tunics?”

Maple reached for Penny and lifted her to the bed.  “She woke up once we got to Los
Angeles.  She hardly spoke to me.  Just stared into the ceiling when she wasn’t writing
in her journal.  One day she said I was filth and decided to leave me.  She moved
to one of the loft buildings on Spring Street.  I was told later that she paid a vampire
to turn her into an undead.  Ever since then she’s been recruiting ex-cattle to become
vampires.  They want to protect what’s left of humanity and eliminate leeches and
ODs who’ve harvested and drunk blood from humans.  The Tunics are now 90-strong and
growing.  Many join because sleeping on cots for years left a lot of people weak with
anemia and bone ailments.  They’re hoping to feel strong again.”

“What does she want from me?”

Maple continued to massage Penny behind the ear.  “She wants you to be one of them.”

Poe swallowed wrong and began coughing. 
Me a vampire? 
“No way!”

J
OSEPH
PLAYFULLY
TUGGED
HER
ponytail as she was about to spoon fruity oatmeal into her mouth.  Poe considered
the Filipino undead with an eternally amused face a brother.  The vampire was Sainvire’s
best friend and one of the speediest vamps now living in DT. 

“Hey, you freak!” she complained half-heartedly.  “I could’ve spilled my only nice
shirt.  Not wise to look puked on for my first diplomatic mission.”  She wore a black
button-up shirt with white ruffle lapels tucked in fitted gray slacks and black high-top
Converse. 

“Oh my.  Forgive me, ambassador.  I almost destroyed the mariachi-slash-slacker outfit
that would save the City of Angels today,” grinned Joseph.  “By the way, Kaleb thinks
I ought to come with you just in case the Tunics hold you down, puncture your head,
and spit blood in your brain to make you an instant vampire.”

“They wouldn’t dare because if I do turn vamp, I’d annihilate them all.  Plus I’d
probably have awesome dead powers like flight, superhearing, and sun-immunity for
starters.”

“You’ve thought about this before, haven’t you?”

“Not to be conceited, but yes,” said Poe in all seriousness.  “I’m such a fear-inducing
human, so they say, that naturally I’d have more super abilities than even Sainvire.” 

Morales sat down next to Poe and placed Piper on her lap.  He didn’t know whether
his friend was pulling his leg.  Poe had never been known for her sense of humor.

“You think so?  In my professional opinion you’d be a Picasso vampire mess.”

Poe gave him an ugly face and took a deep breath.  She said crossly with a half-smile,
“Maybe.  But I did sound like a dick.  Most likely I’d end up being a halfdead or
something.”

“Listen to our Poe, Joe,” said Morales.  “She can keep her trigger-finger off her
gun and join in a joke.  Our girl’s growing up.”

Poe pursed her lips and concentrated on the heavy child on her lap.  She decided to
change the subject.  “She kinda looks like Megan because of the red hair, but the
resemblance stops at that.  This kid looks like a mixture of the two of you.  Weird
looking.”

Both Joseph and Morales pinched her sides until her eyes watered.  “Okay, okay.  I
was just kidding.  She’s a good looking baby.  My goddaughter.  The baby I’m supposed
to protect.  Sorry I haven’t been around, Piper.”

“But bless it, now you’re here,” said Morales.  His teeth were brighter than she’d
remembered.  The handsome ex-realtor turned bombmaker, mechanic, and doctor draped
his arm about her shoulders.

“For two months.”

“That’s something at least.”

Poe didn’t take up Joseph’s offer to accompany her.  She was strapped with two .45
Colts in her shoulder holster, wrist knives which she could still throw with precision,
and a machete slung on her waist.  She was feeling pretty confident like a pirate. 
She vowed to clean the mess for Percy, Piper, and especially Sainvire so he could
finally abscond with her.

A green Jeep Wrangler pulled up in front of the well guarded hotel where Poe stood
waiting in her dark coat.  She’d been watching day vamps concentrate on protecting
the building from possible intruders.  Penny was waiting patiently by her side.  The
day was grim and cold, and suddenly she lost her poise.  A man with the boniest face
she’d ever seen, almost like a Revenent, opened the back door for her. 
These Tunic vamps look really dead and horribly nasty to the eye.  They must’ve been
turned on their sick bed.

The car braked at the Alexandria Hotel which was ridiculously close to the Biltmore. 
Poe let herself out.  The hotel, festooned with terra cotta griffins, had once been
impressive, but time and abandonment gave the place a dank, blighted look.  The driver
escorted her to the bar on the ground floor that used to be known as the Down and
Out.  Inside were a bevy of sallow-faced vamps looking wearily at Poe.  She sat at
the bar and accepted a flat orange soda from an androgynous bartender. 
Like I’m gonna drink poison.
  As an extra courtesy, they placed a bowl of water for Penny.

Three ex-cattle and three vampires joined her at the bar counter.  Apparently they
knew of her for two vamps licked their lips like lizards, and one of them said, “You’re
next, sweet thing.”

Like a dream, Poe watched as the vampires punctured holes in the humans’ skulls using
primitive tools – a Phillips-head screwdriver, a siding scraper, and a ball point
pen.  The vampires who didn’t look too healthy themselves bit their tongues with their
incisors that grew over an inch and spit their blood in the head holes they had formed. 
Poe wanted to throw up.

“You next, sexy?” said the bigger of the three vampires.  “We need you in our group.”

“Fuck off,” said Poe.  She stared at the emaciated ex-cattle writhing on the floor
as they transmuted into vampires.  “I’ll never become a vampire!”  She turned her
gaze at the interesting billiard tables and pinball machines.

As if the three vampires had one mind, they pinned Poe down where she sat and laughed. 
“We’ll take it into our own hands then,” said the vampire called Larry.  The bartender
held up his hand and said, “I want no part in this, man.  Perla’s not going to be
happy.”

“You snooze you lose,” said the vampire holding her left arm in a vise.  Even with
her JKD moves she was too entangled to move. 
I knew I should’ve sat in the booth!
  Penny tried biting ankles but the vampires didn’t seem to feel anything.

The third vampire not touching her person chose the siding scraper from the medieval
set of tools.  He was about to tap her skull with the bloody instrument when Poe went
limp, limp enough that even the two vampires had a hard time holding her up.  She
tugged at her left arm, flicked her wrist knife, and aimed at the vampires’ thighs
and kneecaps, harming all three of them enough to let her go.  She got to her feet
and slashed their faces like she was the wind herself.  When she hurt one, she hurt
them all the same way, slicing off noses, ears, and lacerating cheeks.  Her captors
covered their faces with their arms and begged for no more.

Perla was 15 minutes late.  When she entered the Down and Out, she witnessed Poe’s
wrath.  The leader of the Tunics screamed her anger, stopping the vampires and Poe
in their tracks.  Only the soon-to-be-former-humans struggling on the filthy tile
floor broke the silence.

“What’s the meaning of this?” she seethed.

“She started slashing us, ma’am,” said Larry.  He held what was left of his nose.

“These three tried to turn me into a bloodsucker,” Poe said with viperous tongue. 

“Get out!” said Perla.  The three, including their spawn, left the bar.  She turned
to her friend.  “I’m sorry, Poe.  I was in the warehouse district rooting out a sadistic
vampire called Syrus.  He raped and mangled women for fun.

“Did you get him?”

“No.”

“Your den is disgusting.  I shouldn’t have been asked to see you here.”

“My people are good.  I’m sorry those three had minds of their own.”

“It’s good to have minds of your own.  I think that’s what you’re forgetting.  Are
you commanding some kind of cult?”

“I’m not a cult leader, Poe.”

“Then you sure have gross people making poison Kool-Aid for you.”  Despite her anger
at nearly getting turned, Poe stood up and hugged her middle-aged friend who looked
more like a soccer mom than a vampire with revenge on her mind.  “Last time I saw
you was in a trailer in Gilroy,” said Poe.  “Maple faithfully dressed you in your
favorite pajamas.”  The vampire was in love with pajama patterns.  “I picked you some
apples.”

“Thanks, Poe, but I don’t remember since I was attacked by a vampire and I lost a
year of my life.”  Perla sounded bitter.

“Yeah.  Sorry about that.  At least our side won.”

Perla laughed.  “Criminals and rapists are running around free.  Leeches are protected
by prison bars because Sainvire is too bleeding-heart to approve capital punishment. 
Blood sucking vampires still live their privileged lives.  That’s not winning, Poe.”

“At least it’s better than before.  The blood farms are gone.  Kids are going to school. 
Vampires are only drinking Plasmacore.  Things might not be perfect, but at least
it’s improving.  Give it time.  It’s only been a year and a half.”